“Take the tone of the company you are in.”
“Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.”
“Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.”
“The less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in.”
“Be wiser than other people, if you can; but do not tell them so.”
“Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world.”
“Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.”
“In my mind, there is nothing so illiberal, and so ill-bred, as audible laughter.”
“Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.”
“The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.”
“I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.”
“Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments give luster, and many more people see than weigh.”
“The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it.”
“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.”
“Never seem wiser, nor more learned, than the people you are with. Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket: and do not pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one.”
“Women who are either indisputably beautiful, or indisputably ugly, are best flattered upon the score of their understandings; but those who are in a state of mediocrity are best flattered upon their beauty, or at least their graces: for every woman who is not absolutely ugly, thinks herself handsome.”
“History is but a confused heap of facts.”
“Honest error is to be pitied, not ridiculed.”
“You must look into people, as well as at them.”
“Character must be kept bright as well as clean.”
“When a person is in fashion, all they do is right.”
“Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.”
“The more one works, the more willing one is to work.”
“Most people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.”
“Modesty is the only sure bait when you angle for praise.”
“Ceremony is necessary as the outwork and defense of manners.”
“Men will not believe because they will not broaden their minds.”
“Our own self-love draws a thick veil between us and our faults.”
“If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.”
“A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income.”